retrograde

by Lynne Reeder

starlight permeates the clear night sky despite its source having died years and years ago.

they say there are more cells in the human body than there are stars in the milky way.

remnants of galaxies linger overhead and tumble over one another inside my skin.

grass tickling at my back, i stare at the proof of everything that no longer is while my heart pushes multitudes through the constellation of my veins. why do we believe time is a line, that what was has no place in front of what is? the light of women i loved burns through years their feet will never tread. what remnants will i be inside the skies of my daughters? the dust of creation stirs. the universe calls. centuries circle the moon, and the tide in me responds.

Lynne Reeder has been published by Recenter Press, Sunbury Press, and Paragon Journal, among others. Lynne has also been named Perry County Poet Laureate five times by the Perry County Council of the Arts. She resides in Duncannon with her husband and two daughters.